Loving the Lifts

Workers at 222 Exhibition Street in Australia have new, top-of-the-line gear to move up.

Melbourne, Australia’s 222 Exhibition Street, a 29-story, 30-plus-year-old multi-use tower, was ready for an elevator makeover in a project that included its original lift company, Otis Elevator Co. Constructed between 1986-88, the tower was designed by Denton Corker Marshall and is known as an example of Postmodernism, sources have said. This spectacular commercial high-rise property includes a retail space and automobile parking. The structure boasts stunning views across the city’s CBD.

The elevator services originally installed during construction consisted of five low-rise passenger elevators, five high-rise passenger elevators, one goods-hauling elevator, two carpark elevator and one shuttle elevator. The modernization project, which includes 13 elevators, brought Otis together with LaSalle Investment, Knight Frank Australia and LML Lift Consultants, covering real estate, funding and elevator work. It was taken as a credit to all involved that such a high standard project was delivered, providing the tenants and visitors of the property with a state-of-the-art vertical-transportation (VT) system.

Table 1 offers a layout of the types of elevators that underwent modernization:

Modernization aspects by the involved companies included:

• Adding the “up-front” destination control system (DSC) technology to the existing low-rise and high-rise elevators (numbers 1 to 10), prior to the commencement of the modernization project, improving the dispatch efficiency of the group before any elevators were removed from service (Otis CompassPlus). NOTE: Destination control was also added to the goods lift at a suitable time, as directed by the client (due to significant building work).

• Extension of travel with the addition of single extra entrances (elevators 9 and 10)

• Permanent-magnet AC gearless hoisting machines, with regenerative variable frequency (VF) drive units (Otis OVFR412 Re-Gen Drive)

• Microprocessor controllers with DSC group dispatch (Otis GCS222MMR)

• Car door operators and landing door equipment (Otis Glide P)

• Car and counterweight guide roller systems (Otis Ultra)

• Landing destination touch panels (Otis CompassPlus)

• Global destination touch panels and pedestals (Otis CompassPlus)

• Elevator car interior finishes

• Addition of pit access doors

• Replacement of car park elevators using machine-room-less (MRL) technology (Otis Gen2®)

• Elevator Monitoring System (Otis EMS Panorama™)

• Remote Elevator Monitoring (Otis REM Elite™)

• Occupational Health and Safety Compliance

Winning Lift Work

The project was completed ahead of schedule and with minimal inconvenience, thanks to the up-front conversion from conventional equipment to destination control. The Premium Grade property can now boast a state-of-the-art elevator system, as well as various prestigious awards, including a Silver WiredScore for Digital Connectivity, Climate Active Certified Carbon Neutral score, 5.5 Star Nabers Energy rating and 6 Star Nabers Water rating (two years in a row).

While projects of this magnitude do not come without their share of challenges, the entire team, in this case, was exceptional throughout the journey. To deliver such a result ahead of schedule is a reflection of the commitment of the entire team.

Reference

[1] en.wikipedia.org/wiki/222_Exhibition_Street_(TAC_House)